Table 2.
Descriptive data and gender differences in internet use and mental health indicators*
| Girls
(N = 767) |
Boys
(N = 772) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mean | standard deviation | mean | standard deviation | t-value df = 1537 | P | |
| Communication/entertainment |
74.78 |
20.34 |
77.22 |
20.97 |
-2.27 |
0.023 |
| Academic purposes |
30.38 |
16.80 |
25.57 |
16.80 |
5.56 |
<0.001 |
| Online harassment experience |
28.02 |
24.00 |
23.07 |
22.64 |
4.15 |
<0.001 |
| Problematic internet use |
18.86 |
15.97 |
36.83 |
22.22 |
-17.88 |
<0.001 |
| Friendship |
74.93 |
16.57 |
65.88 |
18.81 |
9.84 |
<0.001 |
| Life satisfaction |
69.24 |
19.48 |
71.42 |
18.91 |
-2.21 |
0.027 |
| Conscientiousness |
61.48 |
19.22 |
59.41 |
19.24 |
2.09 |
0.037 |
| Symptoms of depression |
42.22 |
20.11 |
29.88 |
18.02 |
12.60 |
<0.001 |
| Fear of negative evaluation |
41.92 |
23.55 |
33.32 |
21.42 |
7.44 |
<0.001 |
| Health complaints |
37.63 |
15.79 |
27.01 |
15.70 |
13.09 |
<0.001 |
| Index of substances usage |
24.26 |
15.57 |
27.22 |
16.73 |
-3.54 |
<0.001 |
| Loneliness |
22.01 |
21.60 |
17.17 |
18.94 |
4.63 |
<0.001 |
| Aggressiveness | 12.90 | 13.25 | 20.73 | 18.24 | -9.59 | <0.001 |
*For easier comparison, the results on all variables were linearly transformed to a standard scale ranging from 0 to 100.